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“Emberly might be a bit distracted.”

“You’re right. I’ll get a baby book.”

Shortly after Chad and I reunited, actually before we’d even gone public,

Jackson came back to town. Completely out of the blue and with no warning. He just showed up one day answering Wyatt’s ad for a painter.

Emberly was in the middle of making her first penis cake for Donna White’s bachelorette party—ordered by Betty Pepper, of course—and it was like a major earthquake. It didn’t just shake up my best friend, it shook up everything from her mother to my uncle to…

Well, that’s a story for another time. For now, my sexy man is trying to make my heart burst with joy. He dips down and kisses my stomach. “Hey, baby. We can’t wait to meet you.”

I lean back and sigh, combing my fingers through his hair as he kisses my belly once more. “We love you.”

So much love fills my chest. I never dreamed I could be this happy, and it really is like having it all. I’m closing my eyes, expecting him to travel further south when he’s out of the bed so fast, my eyes pop open, and I sit up. “What’s wrong?”

I watch his tight, sexy ass as he walks across our bedroom to where our empty suitcase is stashed in a closet. “I was going to wait until dinner for this, but I can’t wait any longer. It’s been six weeks of torture.”

“What’s wrong?” I have no idea what he’s talking about. We already tested out the handcuffs. Several times. Pushing myself up in the bed, I wrap the sheet over my breasts.

He turns, one hand behind his back and pauses a moment looking at me with a strange smile on his face. It’s happy but also a little hesitant. It’s a smile I haven’t seen since the first time he asked me to go out with him and I said no.

None of that matters. I’m too distracted by the sight of him standing in the light of the late afternoon sun. His shoulders are broad and his biceps are round and perfectly sculpted. The slanted rays make the lines of his torso deep and so lickable, and Andy standing at half-mast like a promise of all kinds of naughty pleasure has my thighs rubbing together.

His brow lowers, and that smile turns lusty. “If you don’t stop looking at me that way, I’m going to have to fuck you before I can do this.”

“I don’t know what this is, but I have no objection to the fucking part.”

A sexy laugh, low and rumbling comes from his chest. He walks back to where I wait in the bed, and I force my eyes off his swinging cock to his pretty, dimpled grin.

When he gets to the bedside, he stops, dropping to one knee. I sit a little higher, frowning as I try to understand. Reaching out, he takes my left hand, and my brow relaxes, my eyes get wider, and mist clouds my vision.

“Tabitha Green, I knew the first night I saw you standing in your transparent bra and panties beside the pool at the Plucky Duck I had to have you.”

“Oh my God.” I blink and a hot tear hits my cheek.

“I waited a year until I had my shit together to ask you out… Only, I guess I didn’t completely have my shit together.”

Shaking my head, I sniff. “You had it together. I was just too afraid to believe it.”

“You’re the greatest thing that’s ever happened to me. You make me laugh. You bring out the best in me—and the beast.”

“I love the beast.”

“I would never change a thing about you. Except one thing.”

My brow furrows. “What?” I’m ready to change anything about me to make him mine. Or to make me his. Or both.

“Your last name. Will you marry me?”

A little black box is in his hand, but I bypass it diving forward to put my arms around his neck. His body vibrates with laughter, but I only hold him, kissing his skin as tears flood my eyes. Strong arms hold me tight, and a deep sense of belonging warms my veins. It’s something I lost when I was a very little girl, but now, with this sexy, hot, good man, it’s given to me again.

My eyes are closed, and I’m holding him, letting happiness fill me when he gives me a little shake. “Hey, Tabby.”

Lifting my head, I sniff, meeting his bright whiskey eyes. “Yeah?”

“Is that a yes?”

A laugh bursts from my lungs, and I nod. “Of course it’s a yes. It’s a yes yes yes yes yes!”